- Hey Insiders, it's Rachel here,
and I'm a product manager
on YouTube's recommendation system.
Today, I'm going to answer five of your questions
about the algorithm, so let's get to it.
All right, question number one is from Clear Learning,
who recently heard that it might not be a good idea
to share videos outside of YouTube
if we can't correctly measure how a video truly performs,
regarding metrics like click-through rate.
So this is a good question.
You should absolutely share your videos outside of YouTube.
Our recommendation system
is primarily learning from how videos perform
when they are offered up to viewers
on home or suggested.
So when we recommend a video, how is it doing,
do viewers choose to watch it,
how much and how long of the video do they watch,
and if they're satisfied?
If your video is getting more traffic
from external sources like social media,
it's likely increasing your video's potential
to be discovered by more viewers,
and another benefit is that those viewers
now have that video in their watch history.
So there's a higher likelihood
that they may be recommended one of your other videos
in the future.
So share away.
Question number two.
This creator is asking,
"What's up with all these random videos being recommended
"from 10 to 12 years ago.
"Is it a weird audience effect on the algorithm
"or a deliberate algorithm-side quirk?"
So, yes, whenever you're on YouTube,
you may notice that you're being recommended videos
that were uploaded weeks, months, years,
or sometimes many years ago.
And that's because our system is designed to match viewers
with the videos they're most likely to enjoy,
regardless of when that video was published.
If viewers are still showing interest in a given video,
it'll likely continue to be recommended
until viewer interest starts to decline
or viewers start to choose to watch more of other videos
that are being offered to them.
There is a great value in all their videos
for you and your channel as well.
Those videos can help drive in new viewers
who are discovering you for the first time
and binge through your catalog,
other stuff that you've uploaded,
and they may start a habit
of watching your most recent uploads.
But in this case,
it's expected and working as intended.
If an old video is getting recommended,
it's likely that viewers are continuing to enjoy it.
Okay, number three is actually a piece of feedback
that YouTube needs a new Creator tab,
highlighting new creators to help get more views.
We also hear from viewers
that they want to discover new channels,
creators, artists, and interests,
branching out from what they regularly watch.
That is why one of the features we've added recently
is New to You,
which shows up when you refresh your homepage feed.
And that's really designed to help viewers
discover even more new content and creators
outside of what they're currently watching.
We do also have special projects
aimed at helping small channels find audiences.
So we're working on it.
Number four.
This is from a creator who's asking about tags.
"For adding a tag like "things to do in London",
"does it make any difference to add London
"and things to do as separate tags?
"I know you said they're less important,
"but I've always wondered."
In a scenario like this, I would focus
on the things that viewers make decisions about
when they're choosing what to watch,
which is really the title and thumbnail of your video.
Swapping and changing tags
is unlikely to impact your video performance.
So if I were you,
I would start by searching for other similar videos
and seeing what's working.
So, I'm actually gonna do that now
for videos about things to do in London.
Okay.
So after searching for videos about things to do in London,
I noticed a lot of them are titled things like,
"Top 10 things to do in London",
"50 free things to do in London,"
"The top things to do in London, 2021,"
or, "Hidden gems of London."
So this listicle format seems to be working well
for travelers who are looking for those top highlights
and they're planning out their trip.
Rather than copy those titles, I would then ask yourself,
"What can I make that is better or different
"than the videos that are already out there?"
You can either use Google Trends or even do Google searches
and try and look for gaps in content
where your video can like fill a niche.
So for example, from a quick Google search,
I found a lot of demand for things to do in London outside,
things to do in London during COVID,
things to do in London for kids.
There's a lotta demand for free activities too,
or like low-cost, low-budget things to do.
So I'd base my inspiration there
in what you think viewers want
to give my video the best chance of success.
So good luck.
Final question, which we got a month ago.
"Did YouTube recently change the algorithm?"
I'm gonna answer this one in two parts.
So the first one is that we change the recommendation system
and make improvements hundreds of times a year.
What we optimize for doesn't typically change.
So every time we make an update,
we usually get better at predicting
what viewers are most likely to watch and enjoy.
The second
is that the timing of this question is interesting
because every September we get this question a lot.
What typically happens in September,
and I've shown this chart in a previous video
is viewer's schedules start to change.
That's the beginning of the school cycle,
and a lot of creators often have steady declines
in and around this period with viewership
then starting to spike on the weekends
or Saturdays and Sundays.
And sometimes recent uploads
take off a little bit slower than usual,
depending on when you typically release them.
So generally what happens during this time of year
is a lot of viewers who we're watching more regularly
that flatline over the summer starts to dip a little bit
and then spike on Saturday and Sunday.
So this is a time of year
where there are a lot of fluctuations in viewership
because there's actually a lot of things happening
in viewer's lives and their schedules are changing,
which is more likely the case.
This is really common in and around September.
So that may be happening to you.
All right, those are all the questions
that we have time for today,
but if you have more questions
about how YouTube's recommendation system works
or analytics,
drop them below, and we'll be sure to answer them
in future videos.
So as always, keep it real.